IF you search under "toys" on the National September 11 Memorial & Museum website, you can find a search and rescue plush toy dog for $19.95.

You can also get a pair of Survivor Tree Earrings ($68) or, if that's too pricey, a Towers Keychain ($6).

There are also more T-shirts than you could wear in a lifetime, as well as hoodies, bowties, and caps that all serve as markers for -- our grief, I guess.

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Thus, the commodification of our national anguish is complete. We move through a tragedy and then we collect the T-shirts and commemorative earrings to prove it. In this case, the money supports the museum. I get that. But such commemorative items are icky on a level I don't want to visit.

Last weekend, a handful of Newtown organizations -- one was The Sandy Hook Organization for Prosperity, or S.H.O.P. -- sponsored a "cash mob" for Newtown. The idea was to get people to shop at Newtown businesses that have lost money in the aftermath of Dec. 14. Hometown visitors were encouraged to spend $20 at a local merchant. Out-of-town supporters were asked to call in and buy, or pledge support.

This is in addition to a $500,000 Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant approved recently by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

One of the organizers told the local Patch that she hoped residents would "re-familiarize themselves with Sandy Hook" and "gain positive energy." Because shopping heals all wounds, don't you know? And didn't we rake President George W. Bush over the coals when he suggested we go shopping so the Sept. 11 terrorists wouldn't win?

I do not know how much money Newtown businesses lost in the wake of the shootings. It is not the first thing I think about when I think "Sandy Hook."

At Monday's long gun violence prevention hearing in Hartford that stretched into Tuesday, we were treated to a parade of more than a few people who worried that any new gun legislation would cut into their profits: owners of gun ranges and gun shops, gun collectors and owners of security businesses. Instead of being shouted down for craven commercialism and use of a public hearing to advertise their businesses, the cretins were applauded.

More than one of the people testifying worried that more gun regulations would mean money coming out of the pockets of gun owners.

I'm sorry. The mewings of people concerned about income loss is drowned out by the deafening silence of Sandy Hook's 26 dead.

The antidote to the mayhem isn't the self-appointed and self-centered militia that crowded that hearing room. At least part of it is unhooking from organizations such as National Shooting Sports Foundation, based in Newtown, which is also the home of Patricia A. Clark, a long-time board member of that bloated, bloviating money machine, the National Rifle Association.

Oddly, we can work up disgust over a Bronx woman who is accused of scamming donors by pretending to be the aunt of one of the first-graders killed in Sandy Hook. The woman has pleaded not guilty.

We are shocked and disgusted that someone would try to take advantage of another family's loss and grief.

But at Monday's hearing, the father of one of the victims was interrupted by someone shouting, "the Second Amendment!" as if the damn thing needed a shout-out.

And then?

We shop. And go buy the T-shirt.

Yay, us.

Susan Campbell is an award-winning author of "Dating Jesus" and former columnist at the Hartford Courant. Her new biography, "Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker," is coming soon. Email:slcampbell417@gmail.com. Read her blog at www.hot-dogma.com. Follow her on Twitter @campbellsl.